The army needs to be ready to face any unknown threats that come up in the next 30 to 40 years. On 6 September, Swiss Defence Minister Guy Parmelin presented the Bundesrat (the Swiss Governmental Ministerial Council) with a proposal for the complete replacement of the Swiss Air Force's … The Air Force wants to buy new fighters, with candidates including the Airbus Eurofighter, French Rafale, F/A-18 Super Hornet, and F-35A Joint Strike Fighter. The move comes a day after Airbus and Germany placed their bid offering Eurofighter aircraft to the Swiss Government. From Europe, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale and the Saab Gripen E; from the US — the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II. “Europe and the world have become more unstable,” it wrote in the official vote booklet. This Sunday, the Swiss electorate voted to purchase new fighter aircraft by the end of the decade. Switzerland has been trying to buy new warplanes for years. They also benefited from the fact that Federal Councilor Viola Amherd, who had become the country’s first female defense minister in 2019, enjoys a broader appeal than her predecessors had. There is a long road ahead until the air force will receive its new aircraft and new obstacles might emerge. The survey carried out by gfs.bern found that 39% opposed the acquisition and 3% had no opinion. This content was published on Aug 7, 2020 Such was the case in May 2014 when voters derailed the government’s plan to replace the aging Tiger fleet with twenty-two Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripen aircraft. For the first time in decades, the army was defeated at the ballots. In total, 110 examples were delivered to Switzerland, comprising … For its part, the government defended the price tag by raising the so-called offset agreement – a compensatory system that will be into the deal, obliging the company involved to place orders with Swiss firms worth 60% of the contract value. Defence Minister Viola Amherd welcomed the victory and said the government would now proceed with the evaluation of four models bidding for the contract: the Lockheed-Martin F-35, Boeing’s Super Hornet, Dassault’s Rafale, and Airbus’s Eurofighter Typhoon. Work on what would become the P-16 … The purchase’s opponents predictably decried this “blind bargain,” but the defense ministry made sure to avoid the mistakes of the previous vote when even some army-friendly politicians had questioned the Gripen’s suitability in the run-up to the vote. The main argument was that air policing tasks could be done by cheaper, lighter, and more sustainable planes, while the bigger tasks of combat and air defence are in any case illusory. This was the second set of nationwide votes this year, rather than the third, as a ballot in May was cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis. The government has confirmed plans to acquire new fighter jets for the Swiss air force for no more than CHF6 billion ($6.1 billion) over the next few years. There were also numerous ballots at cantonal and local levels on September 27. Even though poll ratings had predicted a conclusive result, the referendum wound up hanging in the balance. Among the questions, one will concern the acquisition of new fighter jets for the Swiss Air Force. Sep 2, 2020 The first new aircraft would be delivered in 2018 and the intention was to lease 11 current generation (eight JAS 39Cs/3 JAS 39Ds) Gripen fighters from 2016 to 2020 in order to train Swiss fighter pilots while avoiding expensive upkeep of the F-5s. The fleet of several hundred fighter aircraft fielded throughout the Cold War has continuously shrunk to initially thirty-four, now thirty, F/A-18 Hornets (and some forty-seven F-5 Tigers remaining for training purposes) that are set to be phased out by the end of the decade. 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